Granite Quarry aldermen split vote, mayor breaks tie by approving 65-house development

GRANITE QUARRY — The Granite Quarry Board of Aldermen voted to approve a conditional district that would allow a 65-house development in between Troutman and Brinkley streets during its special-called meeting on Monday.

The development, proposed as “The Enclave at Granite Quarry,” would be built on two separate properties totaling 10.23 acres. Monroe-based S&M Finance Group bought both properties on April 15 for a total of $275,000, according to Rowan County tax records.

The plan presented by S&M and surveying company Metrolina, who is working on the project, called for 65 single family homes to be built in between the two roads along with multiple connector roads, a park and infrastructure requirements such as a drainage pond.

One of the issues raised by a few of the aldermen was the higher density of the site, with the lot sizes all approximately 0.10 acres.

Stas Kostadinov, owner of S&M Finance, and Christopher Faulk, owner and surveyor of Metrolina, both said that while the company would be sticking with the 65-unit plan, they recognized and were working to live up to the fact that they were proposing a concept that had not been tried often in Granite Quarry.

“We are absolutely aware that we are in kind of uncharted territory and we don’t want to under-deliver because this is a big statement. If it goes well, our names are all over it. We’re looking to overachieve, I can assure of that, and create a community,” said Faulk.

Two roads would be constructed connecting Troutman and Brinkley streets along with another road that would run perpendicular to the two existing roads. Single-family houses would be mostly built in two rows on the perpendicular road, with public alleyways in between the rows. Richard Flowe, planning, zoning and subdivision administrator for the town, said that the alleys would be public right-of-ways solely so that the town’s garbage trucks and other public utility trucks could travel down them. Outside of the trash routes, the alleys would be privately maintained by the homeowners.

Several of the aldermen also had questions about water drainage on the property, as the property contains a small amount of wetlands on the south end, where the creek that feeds into Granite Lake ends. Faulk said that stormwater drainage was one of the developer’s main priorities, because the high density of the development would mean that if one house floods, three or four other houses flood as well. The plans for the development include catch basins throughout the property, which would feed into the dry pond, where it would slowly be released into the surrounding soil to avoid over-saturating it.

Faulk also said that, in regards to density, the lot-count would most likely be reduced by the time the project would be finished.

“There’s the BMP (pond) and there’s also soil stuff, where when you get into a higher level of getting the concept to ground level, that we’ll probably reduce the lot count. But the last thing we want is, if everything is a perfect world, we said ‘oh we’ll probably reduce it,’ and we can never get more without coming back (before the board),” said Faulk.

The developer can reduce the lot counts without asking the board to amend the conditional district but cannot increase without the aldermen’s approval.

At the end of the hearing, the aldermen’s vote on approval ended in a tie, with Laurie Mack and Rich Luhrs voting against and John Linker and Mayor Pro Tem Doug Shelton voting in favor. Mayor Brittany Barnhardt broke the tie with a vote in favor, so the request was approved.

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